Southpa

Why mess around with a router to make radius blocks? Is there a hot water tank in your house? The tank in my house is 20 " across ie. 10" radius. All I gotta do is stick a piece of sandpaper to it, grab a block of wood and start sanding, a few minutes later I will have a 10" radius block, close enough for making a strat fretboard (usually 9.5" radius). There are all kinds of curved surfaces on this earth that can be used to make radius blocks, just use your imagination.

Whats the actual size? ie. how long and how wide? and how many different pieces did it take to put together?

It depends, not all maple is the same. Densities and grain structures vary between species, between trees of the same species and even between different parts of the same tree. Cut some small sections out (cube or rectangle shape) from different areas, measure the 3 dimensions (length, height and depth) to get the volume and weigh the section accurately with a small scale. From that you can work out its density and convert to kg/cubic metre. Then check out the various sources of wood densities on the internet. A few examples : http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_wood.htm http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/chemdata/woods.htm Its not the most accurate way to determine a wood species but might get you in the ballpark, ie. should definitely be able to sort out western and eastern maple. Where do you live and where did the wood come from? local or was it shipped in from somewhere else? You acquired the wood from a known source, go back and ask the person some specific questions. Most maple is plain and unfigured thats why the figured stuff is so expensive.

Looks like just the beginning of a burl, more like a knob you see occasionally with a few small shoots (the dark colored knots) growing out of it. We haven't seen the other side yet.

Once you tighten it to set the proper relief it should bind itself in the channel. Set it where you can just see the hex hole inside, maybe 1/8" to 1/4".

I just finished a refret on my Fender Newporter neck, it was long overdue. I even filled those wear marks between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets that happens to really old rosewood using a mixture of rosewood dust and CA glue. Levelled, crowned and then sanded the new frets with 320, 600, 800, 1200, 1500 and finally 2000 grit. The thing I like the MOST about doing frets is finishing off with 000 steel wool. Its amazing how everything just jumps out after using the steel wool! Anyway Steve00, I hope everything worked out ok.

Most pickups come with sticky cloth tape (black) covering the windings. Was there some of that tape on yours and, if so, did you remove it? That could easily cause windings to end up like that if they were not originally potted. Removing that tape could cause your claim to become invalid, sort of like voiding the warranty.

I had a similar piece of maple a few years back. It was slab sawn wrn. maple with a few small burls and moderate flaming. From that I got a full sized telecaster body and 2 bookmatched tops and various odds 'n ends left over. Heres the build thread for the maple tele: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...c=12262&hl= The cracks are in a burl section of your wood and are very common once the wood has dried, I have similar cracks in the burl areas of my bookmatched tops. If you want to use those sections you can search for some of Drak's old posts on how he filled them with CA or black epoxy, I forget which, but I DO remember him posting something about dealing with burls. Go over the entire surface of your slab with a palm sander and then wet it down and show us whats in there as far as figuring etc. goes

Those slotted, stainless fretboard protectors are the bees knees for that kinda thing.

Sure they do. Its 1-11/16" aka 1.6875" http://www.warmoth.com/showcase/sc_guitar_...amp;type=guitar

Lets get something straight here. Here is a quote from a guitar maintenance source: "Avoid any wax or polish that contains silicone. Silicone resists lacquer adhesion and complicates any finish repair in the future." Now that said, are we talking about actual "silicone" or "silicon"? Silicon is a common abrasive used in sandpapers and, in its finer form, many polishes. That is good to use on your guitar, silicone is not.

That could mean anything you want. Short for "modification" and that includes anything from spraying it purple to soldering in volume / tone controls.

I used to work with a guy who painted ships at one time. Of course they used full face respirators and the paint they were shooting was deadly to breathe. In order to get a good seal around his mask he would spread vaseline on his face. forehead etc. where the mask made contact. Having a beard you are SOL unless you put enough vaseline to fill the gaps, . Can you say gooey mess? When I worked as a "fairer" (a guy who preps boat hulls, deck, bulwarks by filling , sanding, masking etc.), I had to be clean shaven every day to prevent exposure to dust. It was something that was definitely noticed by supervisors, they let it pass but could get into some degree of trouble if WCB (Workman's Compensation Board) showed up for a surprise inspection. But yeah, if you want to protect your lungs, you gotta shave it off.

They make both acrylic lacquers (called super lacquer) and enamels. You don't want the enamel.

I figure the fresher the finish the more (and faster) problems can occur. But a lacquer coat that is literally YEARS old and totally cured could still react if left on a stand over a long time. The rubber emits chlorine gas and only seems to react to nitro lacquer. I use either poly or acrylic lacquer. Its one of the reasons why the big companies stopped using nitro along with checking and yellowing problems.

Thanks for the feedback, I just look at it as something that needed doing. I had lots of time on my hands during those winter months, and I just plodded along one step at a time. You can't rush some things so no need to worry about them. It gives you lots of time to think it over and figure out how to approach those issues. The Haskin's Hagstroms website was a great help at providing very specific info on this guitar. Its not very often where you come across a place that caters specifically to repairing YOUR guitar.

Maybe to speed up the drying process you could give the body a quick solvent wipedown to remove the wax. Make sure the solvent doesn't stay on very long. Then I would hang it for about a month.

It will cure eventually. Your main concern right now is how you plan to store it. If you are wondering what I mean just lay the guitar down on a towel or some other type of patterned surface for a few hours and then take a look at what it does. At this stage ANYTHING that is in contact with your guitar for more than an hour will leave its imprint.

Heres the rundown on how that type of neck originated. http://www.hagstromusa.com/John/index.php3...sub_section=131 It is literally space age technology at work. But as far as DIY at home I don't see it happening. The truss rods are extruded aluminum then threaded and I guess there is a special router bit to make the matching wood profiles in each neck half.

Crazy grain cherry is nice but you might find it unuseable once its cured. I've seen similar wood turn into split and twisted wrecks after drying.

Pic of the back.

Just finished tonight, still have to order a headstock decal but otherwise, the guitar is assembled, setup, intonated, adjusted and playing beautifully. I sanded down to 2000 grit, wish I had finer, and polished with Meguiar's. Look hard enough and you can see very fine swirls, couldn't get it all out. Gloss black is one of the hardest to get perfect. I put a lot of time and effort into this finish but there is always a certain line where you say, "ah, good enough for me", but you have to look REAL close to see what I'm talking about. I also carved a brand new nut out of some of the bone stock that I prepared a few months back, (thats in another thread). I didn't really do anything to the electronics, pickups etc. except cleaning but for some reason this guitar sounds MUCH better than it did before. Here is some EXCELLENT info on "refurbishing" Hagstroms, (or any guitar). The author puts out some very detailed, step by steps on how he tackles some of the nastiest looking guitars. A good source and worth bookmarking for future reference. http://www.hagstromusa.com/John/index.php3...sub_section=153

Remember these prints are for an acoustic with the truss rod adjustment inside the guitar and the anchor block situated 1/4" from the nut. Are you building the exact same guitar? Otherwise you will have to work things out in a similar manner, just make sure you don't get too close to the back of the neck. If you have your LMI truss rod on hand you will have to make your measurements accordingly . Truss rod at the headstock end should be about at the middle depth of the neck. I'd say the slot is about 3/8" deep there. The truss rod does not pass through the exact center of the anchor, its (the anchor) assymmetrical with the short end underneath and long end flush to the neck surface.

Sorry, I'm keeping my blueprints. Depth of neck (fb surface to back) 1-1/4" from nut (1st fret?) is 53/64" (21 mm) Depth of neck 9 - 1/8" from nut is 29/32" (23 mm) Depth of trussrod slot 7 -1/4" from nut is 15/32" (12 mm) -assuming thats the deepest spot FB thickness is 9/32" (7 mm) Remaining wood thickness behind truss rod slot midway is 1/8" (3mm) Those are all the neck mesurements on my plans, hope that helps.

I still have some things to do on the neck before routing the truss rod slot, but its a pretty standard setup for lots of guitars.